Tough fight – SugarHill Steward, trainer of WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury, has a lot of respect for Anthony Joshua – but he doesn’t see him overcoming the awkward tactics of Fury.
Steward kept a close eye on Joshua when he returned to the ring in December, to score a knockout victory over mandatory challenger Kubrat Pulev to retain the WBO, IBF, IBO, WBA world titles.
“He showed a lot of good things in that fight [Pulev], I was very impressed. His patience, he was relentless, he was pushing the issue. It was impressive. Anthony Joshua is a dangerous fight period. From what I saw in that fight he really put his stuff together. I thought he took the risks. He didn’t fight anything like he fought against Ruiz the second time. That’s the one he didn’t take the risks in. He fought with a different style and now I believe he’s comfortable with it.,” Steward told the MyBettingSites.co.uk blog.
“He did take risks in that Pulev fight, he didn’t shy away and just wait – he was right there. He was aggressive and I thought it was a great fight and great performance by Anthony Joshua. Anthony Joshua is one of the top fighters in the division, one of the top fighters in the world, with his skills and experience.
He’s one of those guys who keeps practicing. It’s going to be a tough fight. He’s got a ton of experience, he’s got the height, good balance, good power, timing – there’s so much that Anthony Joshua has – that’s a very dangerous package.”
Earlier this week, it was revealed that Fury and Joshua had signed their respective contracts to collide in a two fight series – with both bouts targeted to take place in 2021.
The date and location is being worked out.
Steward is keeping a very tight guard when it comes to the details of their game plan for Joshua.
“Tyson’s unpredictable in the ring, he does not know what he’s going to do next. Maybe he will just come out and just box [versus Joshua]. Who knows what the game plan will be. Everybody has to think about so many different things with Tyson. Is he going to come out at you or not? Now you have to train two different ways; somebody coming at you and somebody boxing you. It starts to get a little difficult then preparing for something like that.,” Steward said.
“You have to prepare for so many different styles with Tyson Fury, that makes things a lot more difficult. I am eager to prepare for anybody whether it’d be Anthony Joshua, Deontay Wilder, I’m eager to do that with anybody. That’s the excitement, that’s the thrill. It’s like a rush. It’s like when you don’t drink cola for a while and then you take that first sip with all the bubbles and it’s like ‘woah’ – it’s so delicious and so good.”